Why Storyblok is ideal for localization marketing

Localization is critical for global businesses trying to differentiate themselves from competitors. When it comes to content experiences, one way to ensure your business stands out is by treating your customers as individuals and offering them unique experiences — such as by providing them content in their native language and local lingo.

According to Gartner, 27% of tech CEOs wish that they had a resource to assist them with creating regional marketing campaigns. Well, one resource that can help with that process is a headless CMS like Storyblok.

In this article, we’ll explore localized marketing, explaining why it’s essential today and show why Storyblok’s features make it a great choice for localization marketing.

Section titled What is localized marketing? What is localized marketing?

Localized marketing adapts marketing campaigns to make content more appealing to customers from a specific region, country, or market. It speaks to consumers in their primary language, but it means more than just using translation services so that they can understand it. Localized marketing is all about providing context to your content and impacts the entire customer experience. Some examples of localization include:

• Changing product prices to local currencies
• Adjusting visuals to reflect cultural differences
• Using dates, phone numbers, and addresses in a different format
• Portraying content in a way that reflects local buying habits

Want an example of localized marketing in action? Brands like Coca Cola and Nike have been performing localized marketing for some time, with products in different locations featuring unique labels and their websites not only translated to other languages, but also using different models, colors and stylings to reflect local standards.

Marketing by using localization goes deeper than personalization when targeting international audiences and makes them feel like you are genuinely catering to them with your content.

Section titled Why content localization is important Why content localization is important

Content localization is important because of how quickly and easily distributed information is today. We live in a globalized world where a customer in one location can access a website and start browsing products from a brand that’s headquartered on the other side of the world. When that customer accesses that website, however, they want to be greeted by content that more closely relates to how they view the world.

For global brands, a one-size-fits-all content marketing and messaging is a poor choice. Whether a brand is already present in another market and wants to establish itself or is looking to enter a new market for the first time, content localization can provide an upper hand.

We’ve heard of the language barrier that causes issues when two people who don’t speak the same language come into contact and can’t understand each other. The same holds true for your customers. If a brand cannot communicate with its customers, that barrier is never broken, making it harder to tell the stories and provide the engaging experience customers desire.

Cultural, regional, geographic differences also need to be considered with all content, or you risk alienating your potential audience. Translating campaigns verbatim can provide a first step, but if you fail to consider the differences in meaning that one word can have across different dialects or countries, then the risk of a content blunder gets even higher.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, content localization impacts the bottom line. The more you can appeal to your audience with targeted content that resonates with them, the more likely they are to become paying customers.

Section titled What marketers need to localize content What marketers need to localize content

If you want to localize content for your international audience, your marketers need access to the right tools. Here are some of the features your CMS will need to provide:

Section titled Remote access & permissions Remote access & permissions

While your primary marketing team focuses on your main audience, they’ll still need to be able to coordinate with localized teams in other regions, coordinate translators, and more. This means that your CMS will need to provide access for team members in different locations and permission access to prevent unauthorized users from accessing every campaign.

Section titled Streamlined content workflows Streamlined content workflows

The way content gets created, published, and distributed gets more complicated once you start building marketing campaigns in different countries. Everything from written content to other assets like videos, imagery, and more needs to be coordinated without confusing team members. A streamlined content workflow is essential to making your localization efforts sustainable.

Section titled Access to analytics & more Access to analytics & more

Marketers also need to access analytics to see how well-localized campaigns are doing. Analytics should also inform them if there are potentially new markets they can enter. Your CMS should integrate with analytics platforms that monitor your website data or connect to an eCommerce store and be able to integrate with specific localization and translation tools.

Section titled Why choose Storyblok for localization marketing Why choose Storyblok for localization marketing

We’ve outlined some of the bare minimum features your CMS should have if you want to start localization marketing. But what makes Storyblok stand out from other platforms?

Section titled Omnichannel content delivery Omnichannel content delivery

As a headless CMS, Storyblok supports omnichannel content delivery via APIs. The API-first approach that Storyblok offers enables seamless connectivity across all channels, meaning that not only can content be delivered to various devices, including smartphones, tablets, and more. It also provides the flexibility for developers to create the frontend experiences from scratch that best fit every situation without impacting how marketers adjust content on the backend.

Section titled Component-based approach Component-based approach

Storyblok structures content in nestable content blocks that allow you to create reusable templates and easily adjust content. This makes it easy to create different versions of your website to appeal to users who speak another language or live in other countries.

Section titled Translations Translations

Storyblok offers field level translation that allows you to maintain the same content structure but simply change the language. Not all languages carry the same structure, but Storyblok also supports folder level translation which helps you change the structure of your content or makes it easy for a separate team to manage it.

Section titled Content workflows Content workflows

You can create custom workflows and break your content production into stages, allowing you to double and triple-check content before publishing it to your international audience. Content can be grouped into different release schedules both manually and automatically. With Storyblok, you can also track the changes being made to your content over time to see who the last person was to adjust a campaign.

Section titled Integration with Lokalise Integration with Lokalise

Storyblok also integrates with localization and translation management platform Lokalise. While managing your content in Storyblok, you can leverage Lokalise to automate your localization process, collaborate on translations, view how translations look on different devices, and more.

Section titled Storyblok: Localized marketing at your fingertips Storyblok: Localized marketing at your fingertips

Localized marketing is an essential part of marketing today, given how connected we are today, especially in the digital world. For companies offering products and services to customers in different countries and regions, localization can help them to cement themselves and truly connect with their international audience.

Storyblok provides all the functionalities to uncomplicate localization for your team. Marketers have the flexibility to launch campaigns quickly, and developers can use whatever technologies they see fit to create digital experiences that are appealing to your global customers.

Learn more about how Storyblok internationalizes content by reading: Internationalizing your eCommerce: A quick guide.